Rating: 
Summary: beautiful
Review: Simple, beautiful, perfect. Everything I've always wanted lesbian fiction to be.
Rating: 
Summary: lyrical & moving
Review: The first thing that springs to mind after reading some of the other reviews posted here is a warning: This is not a Lesbian Love Story (TM). If you come to the book with some sort of quasi-political agenda, you're going to be disappointed--Brownrigg isn't interested in making points about tolerance, or casting new light on lesbian culture (whatever that may be). Indeed, neither of the two central characters is ever defined as a lesbian: Brownrigg, unlike a lot of folks, apparently knows how to count to three. As to what the book is--it's a FIRST-love story, plain and simple. Flannery, with all the blind idealism of the seventeen year old, falls headlong into love with an Older Woman (all of twenty-eight!) and lives to tell about it. The experience is evoked in all sorts of small, effective ways; I found myself cringing and smiling at the same time as I recognized my younger self in Flannery. Her awkwardness, her embarassment, her unreserved embrace of not only her beloved but also the experience of being in love for the first time, as well as the confused unease that follows the first realization that the lover may not, in fact, be as perfect as once believed, all ring true.
Rating:
Summary: A tour of the heart for women AND men
Review: The striking cover drew me in - yes judge it by the cover -- and the prose kept me there. No, more than the prose, the insight to the shape and nuance of love. I felt present in this story so that the words dropped away and I was with these two lovers: laughing, playing, loving, learning, fearing. As a male reader, the theme is universal (and hotly revelatory, I must say, too). Two women, yes, but more like a younger and a wiser, though sometimes the wiser and the older. Brownrigg finds these moments and holds them, like catching light and letting us see the impulse before releasing it. The format is PAGE by PAGE -- a whole emotional imprint within the discipline of a page. "Pages for You" is delicious and compelling. I stretched out in bed and read it through. Wrung out a bit, but the story and vivid images are in my dreams. Dare I say it?: a masterpiece, a book unlike any I've read. Brownrigg in her other books writes bravely and imaginatively, with a confident and witty voice. I think this book will thrive. PFY will certainly keep many readers warm...
Rating:
Summary: Backward and forward...
Review: This book took me by the hand and pulled me thoroughly and honestly through first love. I gobbled it up in a few hours, completely enveloped in Flannery and Anne's world. It sat with me for weeks. The storytelling is wonderful. One day I found myself reading it from the end to the beginning and still able to feel the loss, the promise and the enthusiasm.
Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary writer...
Review: This is a touching story beautifully told. I was moved by the nobility of the characters who steadfastly maintained sympathy and respect through events that would leave so many others bitter and damaged. From cover to cover, this book was a pleasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful for women or men
Review: This is not a trite or shallow book. Yes, it is the story of a simple romance, but most real romances are simple, probably even yours. The beauty of this book is the way the author reveals the romance petal by petal by petal. It is breathtakingly specific, and in the description of the story's context (a 17 year-old's first year at a college that must be Yale) it is unflinchingly accurate. I believe it will have staying power as a significant piece of literature. As to gender issues: anyone who isn't homophobic should enjoy it because the focus is on experiences that are universal. I particularly recommend it to young men.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: This is one of those books that hooks you from the start. Her spartan prose is thankfully welcome here, and I recommend it to anyone looking for an old-fashioned love story, sans tradition. I gulped down every word in two days. A real page turner.
Rating:
Summary: A testament to the beauty of nostalgia
Review: This is the first book I've read that truly embraces the detached intimacy that nostalgia can evoke. From the prolog you know their love will not turn out with a "happily ever after;" you can respect the journey of Flannery's love and respect the bittersweet flavor of ominous foreshadowing.
The voice that narrates this story is detached in a way that allows you to imagine an older, wiser Flannery narrating something that she remembers vividly; however, the narrator is such a vastly different person by the time she's narrating it that it feels almost foreign. I was, at first, thrown by the third-person narration of a book that I felt was narrated by one of the characters but it artfully depicts the difference in perspective between the characters and the narrator. Don't be thrown by the narration or the wistful nostalgia in Brownrigg's voice; it works.
Completely relatable and utterly believable, from the build of obsession into love to the evolution of their love and intimacy. Knowing that they won't be together in the end doesn't spoil the sweetness of their story. If you can appreciate the grandeur of the Titanic knowing that it's now lying deep in the Atlantic, then you can appreciate the beauty of this love/story knowing that it is doomed.
I only wish I could know the memory that inspired Brownrigg to write this story.
Rating: 
Summary: Better than average, but not spectacular
Review: This lesbian bildungsroman occasionally feels like the self-indulgent autiobiographical fantasy of first love it is. It's also occasionally fun, although a smart undergrad should find the depiction of lit crit university culture embarassingly naive and the protagonists unhelpfully flat. The prose is reasonably good, but often over-indulgent. My jaw dropped in disbelief when I saw that one of the blurbs compared the author to Jeanette WInterson. No comparison could be more off. (And that observation has nothing to do with indulgence, and everything to do with talent.) Nevertheless, it's steps above the average "light lesbian romance," if that's the category you're browsing through. A reader less demanding than I may very well love its easy sentimentality. I read it on the plane, and it really helped the time pass.
Rating:
Summary: Disturbingly Accurate
Review: When I first started this book I unkindly labeled it as lacking in emotional substance and thought it would feel more at home hidden on shelves containing Mills and Boon. However my initial thoughts were well and truly replaced with an overwhelming need to devour it at an incredible pace. The trip to work, lunchtime and the journey home could not arrive soon enough and I was even to be found sneaking a sly look during the day. I was amazed by how beautifully Brownrigg described the emotional and sexual awakening of a young girl as she takes the first uncertain steps towards an all-consuming relationship with an older woman. The tension and passion, joy and heartache are laid bare on the pages with a startling degree of honesty and heart felt identification. Anyone who has loved and been loved cannot fail to be moved by this book. She creates a world where sadness 'bleeds' and happiness is a winter's day in a centrally heated apartment, surrounded by books, food and jazz. The inevitable conclusion leaves you feeling exhausted as if you had personally lived each moment. It's Winterson without reading between the lines. Read it and tell someone about it.
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